This is a new date for the concert that was supposed to take place on May 27! Purchased tickets are valid on this date!
Algiers was formed in 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia when guitarist Lee Tesche and bassist Ryan Maha, both familiar faces in the city's underground rock and noise scenes, met vocalist and guitarist Franklin James Fisher whose musical roots were in gospel, soul and funk. There and then was born the band that would become known for its political lyrics, thundering soundscapes and strong desire for experimentation, and it wasn't long before the world opened its eyes to Algiers. It started with the critically acclaimed album "The Underside of Power" which was released in 2017 and was followed up by 'There Is No Year' in 2020. 2020 was also the year when the band's world tour was supposed to land at Mejeriet but due to the pandemic the concert had to be moved back and forth for to finally be cancelled. We are extremely happy that today, on the same day as the band releases the new album 'SHOOK', on September 22, Algiers is coming to Mejeriet!
'SHOOK' was named 'Album Of The Week' by Stereo Gum upon release. The album is lined with guests from icons to future stars, with
Algiers as a connecting bridge between worlds and sounds. 17 tracks of the most mind-expanding and exciting music you're likely to hear in a long time.
The music grew out of an intense process of 'beat making' for singer Fisher and bassist Mahan. The duo revisited DJ Grand Wizard Theodore's punk-influenced New York City rap masterpiece 'Subway Theme' from the 1970s graffiti flick 'Wild Style'. The song served as a spiritual moodboard for the cross-pollination of urban and cultural styles at the heart of Algiers' strategy. They honed their skills as producers while respecting a vast lineage of rap and punk iconoclasts from DJ Premier, DJ Screw and the Dead Boys to Lukah, Griselda and Dïat. The band continued on the path blazed by their own unique free-jazz montage from 2020, the single “Can the Subbass Speak?”. Chopped beats on a dusty SP-404 sampler and the Sequential Circuits Tempest drum machine. A sample library was built from scratch and then mixed with modular synths etc.
This way of working on the music also opened doors in the productions for a diversity of voices. While community and collaboration have always been part of the Algiers ethos, 'SHOOK' takes this to the next level with guests such as Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against The Machine), Big Rube (The Dungeon Family), Billy Woods, Samuel T Herring (Future Islands), Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher), LaToya Kent (Mourning [A] BLKstar), Backxwash, Nadah El Shazly, Deforrest Brown Jr (Speaker Music), Patrick Shiroishi, Lee Bains III and Mark Cisneros (The Make-Up , Kid Congo Powers). These guests' contributions deftly reshape and recontextualize 'SHOOK' from a variety of perspectives where the guests take on shifting roles of oracle and storyteller. "It deepens and broadens the world of Algiers a lot," says drummer Matt Tong.